My last ever article

It began with the Newsnet Scotland blogspot way back in the Spring of 2009 [That’s the logo above]. It ends here in November 2017. What an eight years it’s been.

This is the last article I’ll ever write folks. Don’t worry. I’m not stressed, depressed or exhausted. It’s just that I’m now turning my attention to areas, and more importantly people, I’ve neglected during this period.

When I created the Newsnet Scotland blog eight years ago it was with the specific intention of exposing the pro-Union bias of our main stream media. The 2009 micro-blog covered newspaper articles and BBC news. The blog supplemented an online newsletter of the same name.

The blog eventually begat a fully-fledged news/opinion online site also called Newsnet Scotland. Newsnet was first alternative outlet to emerge from the micro-blog swamp and stand upright on its own dot com legs.

There was nothing quite like it. Newsnet Scotland grew rapidly. Articles attracted comments by the hundreds. People promoted the site using banners. Volunteers wanted to help. Looking back, Scotland’s pro-independence alternative media was born that day on March 2010. Will the rest ever acknowledge it? I doubt it.

The success of Newsnet was down to the people involved. Ordinary people with no agendas, save that they desired an independent Scotland. Paul Kavanagh, Lynda Williamson and myself were at its core. On the periphery were scores of others, some who I cannot name. All were dedicated and talented. Ordinary folk – and that was the key – doing extraordinary things.

The site was so successful that it was banned by the BBC. It may sound unbelievable, but the very act of posting a comment that contained the word ‘Newsnet’ onto a BBC blog triggered a profanity filter. The comment never saw the light of day. People had their accounts closed by the BBC if they tried to post links to Newsnet articles.

This was genuine citizen journalism at its best. So rattled was BBC Scotland that I was told by a very reliable source that Ken MacQuarrie once decried “those bastards at Newsnet”.

Alternative Media

You know you have an effective alternative media when the traditional media attacks it. Does the Yes movement have an effective alternative media now? Aside from Wings Over Scotland, I cannot think of a single online outlet that causes concern to the main stream media. Not one.

Indeed those involved with today’s ‘alternative’ sites seem reluctant to challenge and/or expose main stream media corruption for fear of damaging their own reputation or career.

Don’t get me wrong. There are very good and very worthy writers out there. The aforementioned Paul Kavanagh’s ‘Wee Ginger Dug’ blog is fantastic with genuine alternative content. I also commend James Kelly’s ‘Scot Goes Pop’ blog. Peter A. Bell’s rapier like sentences skewer an opponent like no other writer. I hope he continues to post articles on this site.

But these are individuals, and none make the kind of grandiose and patently ridiculous claims that emanate from some other sites. Did you know that one so-called alternative media site claims to have attracted two and a half million unique readers? Towards the end of the independence referendum Newsnet Scotland and Wings Over Scotland combined could only boast one and a half million unique readers. I smell shite.

Yes Movement

The Yes movement remains solid. The 2014 referendum and its campaign has ensured that independence will remain at the centre of Scottish politics until it is achieved. Democracy, like evolution, cannot be halted. Those who took part in the first Indyref campaign will be just as energised, motivated and committed come the second. I don’t really see a problem for the Yes movement save for occasional diversions at the hands of those who would place their own personal agendas first. These diversions, like the RISE debacle, will come and go but the lifeblood of the movement – i.e. that which gives it life – is the desire for independence. People will unite when the second ‘battle’ is upon us.

The BBC

Remains not only the biggest obstacle to independence but the biggest problem for Scottish democracy. The corporation north of the border is defined by its news and current affairs output. Even its most ardent defenders admit there are serious issues that have to be addressed.

BBC Scotland is a regional broadcaster masquerading as a national broadcaster. It is effectively forbidden from venturing outside its own borders [Recent short sojourns to Catalonia notwithstanding] which means an overreliance on parochial news. Thus, Scots are presented with a never-ending stream of tabloid style negative headlines about key Scottish institutions.

Scotland’s education system, its health service, its police, its fire service and of course its government are constantly headlined as though inept, failing, in crisis and nearing collapse. Cheap stories contrived from lazy Freedom of Information requests regularly dominate news output from BBC Scotland.

The image of Scotland, when viewed via the colonial/parochial lense of Pacific Quay, is of a failing nation. There is often no context to stories or UK/world comparisons that might serve to educate the public and perhaps offer them an alternative narrative. There is nothing to suggest that the Scottish government is in fact performing well.

But it’s the area of political output that is the most concerning. BBC Scotland political news and current affairs is rancid. The station is corrupt to its core. Stories are routinely sidelined. Some are never reported at all. What other nation has a national broadcaster that refuses to cover not one, but two foreign visits by its own national leader?

Language is carefully manipulated. Unionist politicians are rarely if ever pursued. Inaccuracies are never corrected. What national broadcaster refuses to highlight very specific promises made to the nation when facts emerge that prove the promises will never be kept?

BBC Scotland reporters and presenters do what they are told to do. They read from scripts prepared for them. They adhere to a laid down template. Like employees in all large organisations, they know what is expected of them and are familiar with the culture within which they operate. They are state-sponsored ham-actors reading out lines. They are not journalists.

Evidence of something rotten at the heart of BBC Scotland’s political news and current affairs output is now overwhelming. It’s part of the reason I feel able to give up blogging. There is no requirement for any more evidence.

The events in Catalonia has underscored what I’ve been arguing for years about the BBC. Remarkably the BBC’s corrupt reporting of the Catalan situation has prompted several leading Yes commentators to criticise the corporation. Yet these same voices are silent when the corporation employs the same corrupt practices right on their own doorstep.

The question remains for those who consider themselves leaders, or senior figures, in the Yes movement. What do you intend to do about the corrupt state broadcaster? To do nothing is to risk losing the next independence referendum.

The Scottish Independence Convention

A good idea with the wrong people in charge. That’s my gut feeling about the SIC. I tried to get information from this organisation way back when. It was like getting blood from a stone.

At the time of writing this final article the SIC is set to hold an event in Edinburgh this Saturday. I contemplated going but eventually decided against – £16.50 seemed too pricey.

The event on Saturday will be successful and energetic. Yessers will get to meet up and swap stories and ideas. That’s what it’s all about isn’t it? But it has the look of a money making venture for me. Agendas require to be funded.

I’ve already covered the Scottish Independence Convention in this article published on August 12th. I see problems ahead for it. If you’re looking for a genuine grass-roots get together, I’d urge you to take a look at this local groups conference in Dunblane.

The National

My final remark in my final article. The pro-independence movement has always wanted a pro-independence newspaper. And now we have one … or do we?

The National suffers from under-investment. It doesn’t have a great deal of genuine news content. At the time of writing my final article its front page story is an ‘exclusive’ that turns out to be another report from the Common Weal.

The National has problems. The chief one is who reads it? Click on an article on the website and you are asked to pay a subscription of £1.74 per week. At a stroke, those who the Yes movement desperately need to persuade away from the Union are barred from viewing content that might just achieve this.

Who, other than committed Yes supporters, buy the newspaper? I can’t imagine there will be many who pick up a copy from their newsagent. There are some I know who buy The National with the specific intention of leaving it somewhere for others read. But is this really going ensure it is circulated in the numbers required to make even a modest impact?

Do I welcome the arrival of The National? Yes, of course I do. But it has to be made available to those who have no desire to purchase it. It has to be ‘Metroed’ – i.e. handed out free. Until then, Yessers will be handing their cash to Newsquest, and perhaps even helping fund The Herald, for little return. As things stand, Newsquest is selling sand to the Arabs.

That’s all form me folks. See you all on the other side.

[This site will remain ‘live’ for as long as the small donations allow. Currently there is sufficient funds to see it through next year. I feel it is important that Indyref2.scot remain in the hands of the Yes movement.

Should anyone from the Yes movement be interested in publishing their own content on Indyref2 then feel free to use the ‘Contact Us’ link at the top of the page. As long as Indyref2 remains active, it is at the disposal of the entire Yes community.]

Sad to hear this but I hope you come up with a new venture soon.
We need all good price indy folk fighting our corner.
The press is in decline and also BBC news output in Scotland is losing viewers listeners and long may it continue.
They still have too much influence and still too many folk who should know better believe them
Please don’t disappear

Really sad to hear this but respect your reasons. Thank you for all you have done and especially for highlighting the corruption at the heart of BBC Scotland. I hope you will still be involved on Twitter as that won’t take up so much of your time. I hope you know how much you are appreciated. Saor Alba!

All the very best for future endeavours and thanks for all you have done. The BBC were rattled and still are. If anything they have become more entrenched and their journalism such as it is has declined to the point of being sub Daily Express.

You (& others) were instrumental in awakening me to the lies manipulation & propaganda of the MSM & BBC Scotland in particular. I now cannot read or watch any news with other than a critical questioning approach.

You will be sorely missed, no question. And I can already see some mighty big grins emanating from Pacific Quay as I write this. You have contributed more than anyone else in the pro-indy movement to countering the propaganda output from Pacific Quay–your contributions will be missed. Your ‘London Calling’ book and DVD will help us in the future to show the more naive, soft NO how the BBC in Scotland is deceiving them and has been for decades.

I wish you well in your future ventures and remain hopeful that I’ll see the odd wee contribution from you from time to time.

Forgot to mention that without Newsnet, a great many of us would not be around commenting now, as that space gave us all a voice, an opportunity to learn and test our thoughts and views just about the only one at that time.

Extremely saddened and depressed to be reading this bad news, but i do understand your reasons. Thank you for all your commitment and i for one will never stop promoting your work.
Thank you once again and take care.

Very sad to see you go, have followed you for a long time and enjoyed your opinions and thought provoking articles and investigations. I do hope all is well with you and this is not the last we hear from you. All the very best.

I can’t but reiterate what the others have said. To say that you will be sorely missed is to underestimate the phenomenal effect of your researches and your articles. You are irreplaceable and I too fear that the Pacific Quay employees willl be rejoicing tongiht
I wish you all the best in your future activities and aspirations.

I have displayed your NEWSNET SCOTLAND sticker on my car since early 2014 =)

And there it shall remain 🙂

The first article I remember having an impact on me was about the plans to stop the incentives to invest in renewable energy in Scotland by 2017, and then Westminster pulled it back by yet another year causing blossoming companies and research to go the wall. A vindictive and wasteful act.

I hope everyone who has followed you over the years realises this is not the end , just the start of possibly another exciting chapter , over the last few months of this phoney war we are presently stuck in , no obvious target , no plain goal , no exciting leadership (yet) , just loads of people waiting for the off , a sleeping giant if you want ,

Once peoples eyes are opened they never go back , never again will they believe unionist lies , i want to thank you personally for converting so many people and giving so many some hope , a wellcome lifebelt in a stormy sea of media lies and half truths .

i predict we won’t hear the last of this character who has helped many make sense of what is really going and not what we are fed to keep quiet .

I don’t know who you are, no ‘personality’ against the name, but along with Wings, I always considered you to be the alternative media’s tartan messiah; those hard bastards capable of delivering change. You almost cracked it, buddy. But we’re not in any kind of mourning; thanks to you, we have a very healthy distrust of a bent corporation, and, as in the coffers of Wings, an endless library of shame that we’ll refer to and pass on.

You did your job well! Everyone now knows exactly what the BBC is. I hope that you noticed that I supported your work fully (@trapdoorcat). I trust that you will still be active on Twitter, even if not blogging? You have too much to offer to pull out entirely! Whatever you decide, you go with my very best wishes. P.S. Who are you? You never did tell us your real name. 😉

Wow! what a shock to read this, NEWSNET SCOTLAND was the first & really ONLY online site of it’s time, I joined way back in the beginning.

It was without a doubt the place that educated so many of us, who although we thought we knew what was going on, NEWSNIGHT confirmed just how much we live in a bloody dictatorship of a country.

To say you will be sorely missed by all of us YESSERS is really an understatement,ent of that fact.. I do hope that come the next referendum you will come out of hibernation & do what you have done so well for so many years now, EXPLOIT ALL of the mainstream media in Scotland for what it is. A traitor to this country.

Till then enjoy your time away, enjoy your family & friends, but remember WE STILL NEED YOU..
Kate

I am really sad that you will be hanging up your pen. Having campaigned for Scots independence over several decades, and having regularly become depressed by the misrepresentation in the Scottish press and especially the BBC, the advent of Newsnet Scotland was like manna from heaven. At a stroke, I found that thousands of others felt what I felt about Scots Indy and especially about the Scottish media. The effect on morale was amazing, plus we were all educated with facts not propaganda, and the propaganda was debunked.
Your terrier like pursuit of the odious BBC Scotland news has been one of the highlights for me. Sadly they will be pouring out the champagne tonight if indeed you are leaving the scene.
Thank you for your time and efforts for the cause..

Awww… so sorry to hear this, GAP! I have sooo enjoyed reading your articles and getting your take on what is going on in the political world. You have been instrumental in educating my once ignorant view of the BBC, of MSM per se and the many politico’s that inhabit our fair country! THANK YOU for that education! I can see clearly now…

I understand your reasons for moving on to other things. Blogging is tying – and trying, at times! You well deserve the break! But I hope that this does not signify the end of the GAP ‘arrows’ of truth being fired at those who deserve a slap! You do it so well! Lol!

Seriously, take care, enjoy your ‘you’ time. But don’t be a stranger! I’ll be looking for ye…

Thank you so much for the time you have taken to educate and provide the information needed to remain informed. I visit your site everyday and I will miss your writing. Thank you and all the very best for you and yours in your next project.
If you change your mind, we will still be here! Yours Jill.

Just one more example of the typical nastiness of the standard sneery BritNat. (Every reminder of what a deferential sellout people like you are must surely sting.) I really do hope you think this is all over, so you can take your rudeness elsewhere.

I’m glad that yessers are better than that, which is why you will lost and we will prevail.

We are discussing next time and I wouldn’t be too confident about a NO victory next time, we know that approx 70% of pensioners voted NO and it has been worked out that around 150,000 NO voters will have made the trip to heaven by the year 2018, we lost the vote by less than 200,000, also remember many EU Nationals voted NO due to the worry of EU membership, now their worry is the other way round, not only that we now can see the lies Better Together spewed out.

Vote NO to secure our place in Europe (LIE)
Vote NO to save 2000 HMRC Income Tax jobs (LIE)
Vote NO or companies like Scottish Widows will leave, now based in London (LIE)
Vote NO to secure the building of Frigates on the Clyde, now reduced and the frigate factory shelved, (LIE)
Vote NO to save British Steel jobs, it took the Scottish Government to save the plant (LIE)
Vote NO or subsides for Scotland’s renewable energy sector will stop, now stopped (LIE)
Vote NO because only the broad shoulders of the UK could save the OIL Industry, now mass unemployment (LIE)
Vote NO Cameron promised a 200 Billion North Sea Oil boom with investment (LIE)
Vote NO and lose the HS2 planned for Scotland, now we are told ‘no business case’ for taking fast train service to Scotland (LIE)
Vote NO and lose the £1 billion to develop “carbon capture and storage” technology on power stations, now cancelled (LIE)
Vote NO Cameron said “Scotland should lead the UK not leave” on the same day as the NO vote EVEL is introduced making it impossible for a Scot to become a Prime Minister ever again… (LIE)

We started the last time at 28% next time at the very least we start at 45%

GAP you have been my go to person to get a true take on all shenanigans relative to Indyref1 and 2.
I wish you all the best but hope you will continue tweeting and when refreshed you will feel able to take the lead once again. Scotland will be Independent – all the Yessers need to keep strong and determined that the campaign will soon begin so please GAP keep tweeting and guiding us. All the best to you and yours 😘

Enjoy your time away but once you have recharged the batteries – like the Terminator – “you’ll be baaaaaaack!” At least I certainly hope so! Meanwhile, many many thanks for all your past posts that provided much needed information and inspiration…

Little New Zealand once made some handy foreign currency by selling sand to the Arabs. Really, it was West Coast ironsand but the point still stands.

Also after the UK entered the EEC and kiboshed their export markets they took the humble Chinese gooseberry (we had a vine in Dunedin and knew the fruit by that name) in the middle of the Cold War, rebranded it the kiwifruit and created an industry. To feed Northern Hemisphere year round supermarket demands it then sold cultivars and agritech to grow them to Argentina, Chile, France and most recently Iran.

Don’t diss selling sand to the Arabs, iScotland should be seeking to emulate that sort of national entrepreneurship.

Good luck GA, Newsnet was the first site I found back in the day, Wings second.

A lot of people have neglected personal lives and even business lives for the sake of Indy, and there comes a time when life has to catch up with the ideal. Some people are all or nothing, it’s hard to stay away and keep it under control. “Just lurk” – yeah, right!

I helped fund Newsnet with a regular standing order when it was getting going. Then I got banned. Four enquiries about why I was banned elicited not even the courtesy of a reply. I have not read it since not will do so. The National is run by a dedicated small team on a shoestring budget who do the amazing job of keeping it running. It has steadily improved and yesterday’s contribution on Don Roberto for instance was worth the cover price on its own. Simply put if all those who purport to support independence actually put their hands in their pockets and spent the few pence daily the National cost it could do amazing things.

Mr Ponsonby, people seem to forget back in 2013 and 2014 just how few people were alert to the bias in the media, particularly the BBC. I seem to remember both Alex Salmond and Blair Jenkins even dismissing the very concept of BBC bias out of hand, much to my own exasperation and most certainly yours.

Your efforts to raise the Scottish public’s awareness to the everyday bias has not exactly been a thankless task, but to date I would say it has certainly been vastly under appreciated. But do not lose heart Mr Ponsonby. The time for such recognition is yet to come.

Look around Mr Ponsonby. The next IndyRef is already going to be different. Articles in print, blogs and BTL comments all over the place now routinely refer to the bias and distortion of our news and political broadcasting. The landscape has changed, and you helped change it.

The dragon of BBC propaganda has yet to be slain, and that day cannot come soon enough for Scotland, but your efforts Mr Ponsonby, your book, and the London Calling video have changed the landscape from the world of niaive denials of 2014, to the infinitely more streetwise appreciation of bias and manipulation which will, I feel sure, be a defining hallmark of the forthcoming campaign.

You have done more, much more, than possibly anyone else I could mention to hold the BBC to account, and I fear and regret it is a shortcoming and failure from the rest of us, the people in the streets and in elected positions of authority who have lacked the group coordination to truly make best use of your sterling contributions and apply them for optimum purchase.

You are our David who faced down the Goliath of the BBC, and time will tell just how critically the perfidious BBC’s reputation has been forever damaged, and irremediably damaged in the eyes of the Scottish Electorate. The spell has been broken. People are at last seeing the BBC for what it is.

I am sorry Mr Ponsonby, but I refuse to accept your final word. Take a break. Take time off. Address whatever matters you wish to attend to, but please come back to us Mr Ponsonby. When Scotland finally throws off the shackles of the defunct Union and steps forward as a sovereign Nation, it will be because Scotland has at last woken up to lies, distortions, bias and manipulation which has plagued Scotland’s political discourse for decades and chosen something better. We have you to thank for that heightened awareness Mr Ponsonby. Yes, there are others, Prof Robertson, to name just one, but it’s a very select club.

Like others have said, I believe you have too much talent and passion to disengage from Scottish politics completely. I am sure you will find other ways to help Scotland with your drive and creativity at some point in the future.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.

Dear Mr. P , i have followed your work since the early days and want to give you my heartfelt thanks for the forensic analysis you have provided to an evergrowing population of Scots as the inherent corruption in plain sight of. the unspeakable BBC.

i feel genuine sorrow that a true Scottish hero, a bonny fechter, is retiring from the fray. But I understand your reasons and like Prof Robertson, I have felt for a long time that the cultural inhibition that Scots have been brainwashed into, has contributed to the paucity of active support required financially as well as politically, to enable you to reach the broader audience required for the long sought after electoral breakthrough.

We remain happy to let lone figures, like yourself, fight on our behalf, underfunded, and unsupported at critical moments. The week by week analysis of the BBC Scotland’s political broadcasts should have been the main driving force at dismantling this disgusting Britnat propaganda mouthpiece. But instead has been sidelined by other agendas that are ultimately secondary to the lethal danger that the DBBC continues to pose to our Freedom.
I wish you all the best, and pray that you will return to the struggle when ‘Now is the Time’

Thank you for all you have done. I remember great excitement when Newsnet started up and I was hooked on it pretty quickly. Still miss it in its early form. Scotland is indebted to you for starting the whole Independence blog thing, and from that look where we are now, so many. Thank you so much! Have a good break, and maybe you will be back at some point?? Hope so….

This makes me so sad. I put you at the top of the people I trust, admire and respect about indy. You will be very much missed. I hope you will be back when it heats up again. We need you. Thank you for your work.

I would like to echo breeks , lochside and so so many others by saying you have been one of the most influential and stalwart voices in the exposure of the disgrace that is the Brutish Bullshitting Corporation , your books and especially LONDON CALLING has enlightened , educated and emboldened people to face the truth of that corrupt organisation.

For ALL your hard work , worry and stress I thank you , enjoy your loved ones

Sorry to hear this. Your contribution has been excellent and important and I hope you will change your mind. We are in the final stages of becoming an independent nation and now is the the time to push even harder.

GAP your efforts will be missed, a very BIG thanks from me for all your work over the years. Till Indy Ref2 . . . All the best!

For any readers who haven’t heard of the following blog , do give it a look. By Prof. John Robertson, positive news sbout Scotland demonstrating that Scotland is Definately going in the right direction, news you’ll not find in the MSM several posts every day

I feel we have reached the end of an era – and I feel sad about that. I could always rely on you for the truth and reporting of events as they really happened – rather than rely on the BBC and other unionist mouth pieces deliberately skewed versions – or indeed their silence.

Best of good fortune for your next venture, we can only be grateful for your work to promote Independence thus far. You worked hard and told the truth, not everyone can claim this.

GAP, I first found you when looking for ways to stay in touch with home events, while working in Saudi. My opinions of the BBC at that time were ambivalent. Through Newsnet Scotland (by email and later online), you ploughed your furrow with that intangible Scots’ “thrawn” that we all could do with more of!

Although Newsnet became a victim of it’s own success and ultimately, a pale shadow of it’s initial “no holds barred” former self, it was the lone voice and lantern for many like me who could see the bias in print and broadcast media. You got the job done there and I thank you for all the years that I received my news direct from your keyboard, despite being in so many far-flung places.

Whatever you decide to do, come back or stay away, you have done the movement and your country a service. You are a true Scots patriot, with all the traits of a leader and spokesman who can see through the waffle and spin all too prescient in Scotland these days. Your voice and others have now been diluted by those you mention, with their own drums to beat and their whipping-up of faux outrage whenever someone, like yourself, has dared to call it what it is.

Like so many others before you, you have advanced the cause you backed. Others might or might not take up the baton you are laying down. However, my thanks is for what you have done so far. You have changed the world, if only this small part of it and you certainly changed my life, all for the better.

Thanks in print just don’t seem to reflect the sentiments…I hope that one day we can meet and I can demonstrate my gratitude in again, true Scots’ fashion by asking you to name your poison- on me of course!

Many thanks GA for your sterling work in highlighting how the BBC and the bulk of the media have been lying to us for a very long time. It’s down to you that I have had the scales lifted from my eyes and I now question everything that they do or say.

You have blasted a massive chasm in their agenda and put a big spanner in their works. I stopped paying the license fee six months ago after getting sick and tired of having their bias blasted into my home 24/7. I stick by the rules, don’t watch the BBC or live TV, and get my news from other sources.

Thanks again for your part in helping Scotland come closer to its Independence. Next time things will be very different, too many people have seen the light. All the best for the future and good luck with whatever you turn your hand to next. Cheers!

Sad to read that you will no longer be publishing. Read you since newsnet, and as You state, individuals had a voice. If I remember rightly your website on newsnet was inrtumental in getting some labour electioneering posing as a council newsletter removed in Glasgow. You were an important read, before the Indy ref was beicoming a reality, and I believe your site and articles helped get us there. One of the good guys. Wishing you all the best.

Newsnet and “London Calling” contributed more to my education than any other material in the last half century. Both must have been the product of real, sustained courageous journalism ..of the sort that we have seen from the likes of Robert Fitch, Jon Stewart, Louis Theroux, Bob Woodward etc. Many thanks. BBC pomp and false circumstance surely can never be the same in future.

I think Peter A Bell would beg to differ with you about the alternative ‘gathering’ scheduled for Dunblane as being any less self-serving – commercially and career-wise – than the similar issues you rightly highlight with the leadership of the SIC. We’re getting to the point where there ae umbrella groups for umbrella groups. People just need to come together at a local level, not to sit around talking, but to *do*. Crowdfund and open a hub in your high street to engage directly with your fellow citizens on the benefits of independence and the catastrophic consequences of not taking it at the second chance. If you can’t open premises, then organise meetings in your local area, set up street stalls. The political arm of the independence movement is in the hands of the best people it could be – the SNP Scottish Government. If the self-absorbed chiselers at the top of some self-appointed ‘leadership’ groups of the YES movement think they can do better, let them form themselves into a political party and stand for election.